“QE2 is very good in reducing the chances of deflation and a double dip,” he tells The New York Times Video.

“It’s less good in getting us out of a world of low growth and stubbornly high unemployment. We need QE2 as part of something much bigger which isn’t materializing yet.”

Without a stronger policy response, we face three years of low growth and high unemployment, El-Erian says.

“We’ve come from a great age of leverage, debt and credit entitlement,” El-Erian says. “Now we’re reversing that process, which takes a long time. It takes many years to undo a great age of borrowing.”

A comprehensive policy response must address three key economic issues, he says. Those are the demand side, the supply side and the need to protect the most vulnerable segments of society.

“Also it must be comprehensive in supporting what other countries are doing,” El-Erian. “Now we risk a situation where other countries may undo what the Fed is trying to do.”

Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley’s nonexecutive Asia chairman, agrees. “The process is not going to work if they don’t come up with a multilateral solution,” he tells Bloomberg TV.